"Yun Kai."
Yun Jie's voice came out like a curse and a prayer at once.
The blindfolded figure hopped down from a low branch with the grace of a cat, landing without a sound. His bare feet didn't so much as stir the leaves on the forest floor. He walked slowly, and oddly enough, despite his condition, there was no cane or guiding tool to aid him; yet every step was confident and deliberate.
Not even the Wild Ash Rat, now long gone, had sensed him.
Yun Yue's teary eyes flared with sudden fury. "You—! You're the reason we're even here!"
She leapt up and stormed toward him, fists balled, tears still streaking down her dust-smeared cheeks. "We nearly died, Kai-ge! Jie-ge almost got eaten! That thing was a ranked demon beast!"
Yun Kai tilted his head slightly. "Oh?" His voice was calm, infuriatingly serene. "Mortal rank? Tsk. That must've been rough."
Yun Jie groaned. He was slumped against a tree, clutching his bleeding chest, pale as moonlight. "I swear… if I don't bleed to death tonight, I'm throwing you into the moat when we get back."
Yun Kai stopped a few feet away, arms folded into his loose sleeves. The black blindfold hid his eyes, but somehow, you could feel his gaze settle on you, piercing, heavy, and strangely unnerving.
Then he sighed. "I warned you two to stay behind. I said I was just scouting. You followed me."
"We followed you?" Yun Yue shrieked. "You invited us!"
"No," Yun Kai corrected, "I _mentioned_ my plans. You two followed me like ducklings chasing breadcrumbs. Not my fault."
Yun Jie coughed. "I'm dying. Can we save the family drama until after I'm not actively losing blood?"
Kai stepped forward, knelt, and pressed his fingers against Yun Jie's chest.
"Hold still."
"Wait—what are you—"
A faint warmth pulsed from Yun Kai's palm. Yun Jie's words caught in his throat. His muscles tensed… then loosened. The pain dulled, as though water had been poured on a fire inside him.
Healing energy.
Yun Yue blinked. "You… you've advanced in your practice?"
Yun Kai didn't respond. His jaw was set, his brow slightly furrowed—a rare emotion for someone usually so blasé.
The warmth faded. Yun Jie gasped as the pain returned in a dull throb, but it was manageable now. The bleeding had also stopped.
"There," Yun Kai said, rising to his feet. "That'll hold you together. For a while."
Yun Jie pushed himself up with a groan. "Since when do you know healing techniques?"
Yun Kai shrugged. "Since I realized I'd probably have to babysit my elder siblings through a demon-infested forest."
Yun Yue's fists were still clenched, but now she looked more confused than angry. "But you're… you're blind."
Yun Kai smiled faintly. "Blind doesn't mean helpless, Yue'er."
That stopped her.
He turned and walked past them both, toward where the Wild Ash Rat had vanished. He crouched beside the tree it crashed into, running his fingers along the bark, feeling the cracks.
"Hunting patterns," he murmured. "Too close to the outer rim. If this thing was wandering this far out, the forest's balance is off."
"Wait," Yun Jie said, trying to follow but stumbling. "Are you saying this isn't normal?"
"No," Yun Kai replied, standing again. "It's not. That wasn't just a hungry rat. It was running. Something bigger must've scared it this way."
The wind stirred the trees. The forest that was once loud with birds and insects now felt eerily still.
A shiver ran through Yun Yue's spine. "Something… bigger?"
Yun Kai showed a strange smile that spiked their anxiety level and nodded. "And stronger."
Yun Jie's face turned pale again. "You mean ranked higher than Mortal?"
"Possibly." Yun Kai turned toward them, expression unreadable beneath the blindfold. "That's why I came. I can sense something's wrong in the Black Stone Forest. Something huge is… stirring."
"But why not tell the palace?" Yun Yue asked. "Why come alone?"
Yun Kai didn't answer immediately. His face tilted slightly to the side, as if listening to something the others couldn't hear. "It's only a mindless ramble from a blind, talentless child." He paused, then continued, "That would be their response."
Then, softly, he added, "Also, because I don't trust the palace anymore. There are too many schemes and plots going on; it's turned sickening."
Silence fell.
Yun Jie and Yun Yue exchanged puzzled looks, not quite understanding what he meant.
"Kai-ge…" Yun Yue said quietly. "What did you find?"
Yun Kai lifted a hand and pointed toward the deeper parts of the forest, toward the area where the Black Stone Forest's forbidden center merged with the massive Kunlun Mountains, where the trees grew too thick for light to pass and legends spoke of old, buried things from past eras of ancient battles.
His voice dropped, calm and quiet as ever, but heavy with meaning. "Something's coming. And we're already too late."
The words hung in the air like frost.
Yun Jie stiffened. Yun Yue's breath caught.
Then, without warning, Yun Kai burst out laughing.
Not a dry chuckle. A full, bright, belly-deep laugh, echoing across the clearing like a thunderclap.
The tension shattered like glass underfoot.
"What the hell?" Yun Jie muttered, stunned.
Yun Kai clutched his sides, trying to catch his breath. "Ahaha—your faces—gods, you looked like you'd just seen the King's ghost!"
Yun Yue's eyes widened. "You… you're joking?"
"Of course I'm joking," Yun Kai said, finally calming down and wiping a tear from the corner of his blindfold. "Something stirring? Please. You think I've got divine insight now? I'm blind, not omniscient."
He waved a hand dismissively, though the smirk lingered on his lips. "I don't have such an ability. Don't take everything I say so seriously."
Yun Jie looked halfway between relieved and furious. "You—you bastard!"
Yun Yue stamped her foot. "That wasn't funny!"
"I thought it was," Yun Kai said lightly. "Ten out of ten in dramatic timing, if I do say so myself."
But even as he grinned, there was a flicker of something else, a faint glint behind the blindfold, subtle but sharp. A thread of tension that hadn't fully faded. He might've said it was a joke, but his body hadn't relaxed. Not fully. And the siblings, though annoyed, didn't notice.
He was lying, just not about everything.
Yun Kai straightened, brushing dirt from his robe with exaggerated casualness. "Alright, fun's over. You two should head back."
Yun Jie blinked. "What? Why?"
"You're injured," Yun Kai said simply, stepping past them again. "And you," he pointed at Yun Yue without looking, "nearly got turned into minced rabbit. You've proven your courage, I'll give you that. But this forest isn't the place to win pride points."
Yun Yue frowned. "But you—"
"I'll stay," Yun Kai interrupted. "I came to confirm a hunch, and I have what I need."
Yun Jie narrowed his eyes. "You just said it was a joke."
"It _was_," Yun Kai said smoothly. "But jokes can carry a grain of truth, can't they?"
He stopped beside a stone half-buried in moss and crouched again, pressing a hand to the ground as if feeling for something. The wind ruffled his dark hair, and for a moment, he was completely still. Then he stood.
"I need to look deeper. But alone. You two would only slow me down."
That earned him a solid glare from the duo, but Yun Kai ignored it.
"You can argue with me later. Right now, go back. Yun Jie, your wound's clotted, but it won't hold forever. You need a real physician to check it out."
He turned toward the trail leading back to the palace. "There's a talisman hidden under a tree root about thirty steps east of here. Break it, and it'll signal the outer guards. They'll escort you the rest of the way."
Yun Yue hesitated. "But Kai-ge…"
He turned toward her, finally. A smile played on his lips, but it didn't reach his voice. "I'll be fine, Yue'er. This forest and I… we're like tight friends. I won't get hurt."
Yun Jie stared at him. "You're not telling us something."
"Probably," Yun Kai said with maddening calm. "But you're not emotionally strong enough to know it yet."
The silence that followed wasn't tense this time. Just… hollow. Like something had shifted.
"Go," Yun Kai said again, softly. "Trust me."
And somehow, despite everything, they did.
Yun Jie groaned and stood, swaying slightly, but Yun Yue caught him under the arm. Together, the two of them limped toward the path, casting worried glances back at their blind brother.
Yun Kai waited until their presence faded behind the trees. The wind returned, brushing softly through the leaves.
His face hardened.
He knelt once more, fingers brushing along the cracked bark, the scent of demon blood still lingering in the air. A chill ran up his spine—not from fear, but from a certain memory.
"It's really happening," he whispered to no one. "Just like in the dreams…"
He pulled something from his sleeve. A talisman, simple and unmarked, except for a single drop of dried blood at its center. He clenched it in his fist.
"I hope I'm wrong."